HABITS OF THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 1T6 



7 o'clock forty-nine more cargoes — thus making seventy-four 

 within forty minutes — have been brought by the two birds. 



The male now swims to the bank, and stands up upon the 

 sedge and mud at the extreme edge of the water. After standing 

 a moment or two he sits, but soon again rises, then sits and seems 

 resting. Afterwards he again stands and preens himself a little. 

 The female meanwhile continues to work by herself, and brings 

 ten more cargoes to the nest before desisting. This would be 

 towards 7.30, for there has been some pause after 7, and after- 

 wards she has not worked so quickly, besides being alone. 

 During the greater portion of this time the male, who has re- 

 entered the water, has also been working, but, instead of helping 

 the female as before, he is now carrying weeds to the bank 

 where he has been standing and sitting. He swims out each 

 time some little distance, and dives for them exactly as in build- 

 ing the nest. By 7.30 he has brought twenty-seven cargoes thus 

 to the bank, arranging each one with his bill as at the nest. 

 Then — at 7.30 — he stands up exactly where he has placed the 

 weeds — upon them, that is to say — having evidently been making 

 a platform with them for this purpose. He shortly again takes 

 the water, brings one more weed-load, and then swims away, 

 joining, after a time, the female, who has by this time also 

 desisted, and both birds now float idly on the water. I now walk 

 along the bank to the nest, which I find to be twenty-three paces 

 beyond the old one, and at another twenty-three paces beyond the 

 new nest I find the little platform or foothold of weeds which the 

 male bird has made. This is adjoining to and just on the extreme 

 edge of the bank, where it is hardly above the water and more 

 composed of sedge than soil. The nest is a massive structure, 

 and seems to be anchored and kept in place by being woven, under 

 water, in the growing weeds of which, uprooted, it is formed. 

 Several long and water-logged sticks are also fixed amidst it by 

 one end, the other end sinking down amidst the mud and weeds ; 

 so that they too help to hold it fast. I had several times seen 

 the female, but not the male, placing and struggling with these 

 sticks. One has, I may say, often to scribble very fast in order 

 to keep up with the birds, and so must leave a few things to 

 be added. 



Now sticks, being usually pieces of floating spar from wrecks, 



